How a Pooper Scooper went National with Method.

Originally posted by Lynda on September 18, 2014

While most cringe at the idea of cleaning up after their beloved pet, Jacob D’Aniello saw a unique business opportunity in the dreaded backyard chore. And jumping on the idea to providing ‘pooper scooper’ services has served him well!

Jacob now runs DoodyCalls – a growing, nationwide franchise that takes care of the dirty work of pet ownership through a multi-tenancy CRM.

Earlier this month I had the pleasure of speaking with Jacob to get the scoop (couldn’t resist) on how he came to Method and how it’s helped him grow his business.

“My daily job is not a pooper scooper – it’s running a multi-location organization and I needed a system that would bring together everything that was going on in all the units. That’s what Method:CRM brought us – the ability to see the bigger picture.”

During our chat I jumped right in, bombarding Jacob with questions, but he thought it best to provide the background to how he became a multi-tenancy master within Method:CRM.

Jacob told me he, like many small business owners, eventually bumped up against the limitations of using his accounting software to run his business. He realized he required an alternative business solution, but it needed to integrate with QuickBooks and provide increased functionality.

And it wasn’t just about his needs as a business owner – Jacob needed to provide an easy-to-use system for the DoodyCalls franchise owners, so they too could effectively run their businesses.

So, after way too many nights staying up until 1 a.m to plan routing and scheduling, Jacob signed up with QXpress. A few years later, Founder and CEO Paul Jackson sold QXpress and went on to launch Method:CRM – a QuickBooks-integrated CRM that is customizable to accommodate every small business’s unique way of getting their work done.

“I followed Paul from QXpress to Method. I respect him and believe in him and was happy to move with him on his next adventure”.

So, how is Jacob making the most of multi-tenancy for DoodyCalls?

Unifies the franchise under one system.

When I initially asked Jacob about the advantages of multi-tenancy within Method:CRM, he spoke about accessing customer and financial data from different franchise locations, and the amount of time it saved him compared to chasing down that information.

But as a company owner who genuinely cares about the success of his franchisees, he quickly explained how he employs Method’s multi-tenancy for the benefit of everyone working at DoodyCalls.

“In Method, I can create customized screens that impact the organization as a whole. With single tenancy, if I create a new customization to revamp the AR module, I’d have to rebuild that screen for each individual tenant across the country, which would be horrible.

But with multi-tenancy, I can roll these changes out across the organization and positively impact efficiency for everybody at once. I can make customized changes that help the franchise owners better run their businesses right away. It’s one thing for me to customize Method to help make the running of my business better, but more importantly, I’m creating customizations that are helping my franchise owners run their businesses better”.

Consolidates business functions for a leaner organization.

To better serve thousands of customers across the U.S and to keep his franchise owners off their phones, Jacob established a central call center for the company, which handles customer service and billing inquiries for all DoodyCalls franchises.

“Before adopting Method:CRM, a customer would call with a billing or scheduling question where we needed to look at their invoices or the franchise service schedules. But, everyone’s individual systems were hosted on their own computers, so we had no access.

With multi-tenancy through Method, it’s possible to look at all schedules. It’s possible to look at everyone’s bills. It’s possible to look at customer payments. That is very helpful from a customer service standpoint”.

Consolidating the company’s customer service is a win-win for Jacob – his franchise owners are happy spending less time managing customer calls and more time on revenue-generating work, and pet owners remain loyal to DoodyCalls thanks to their timely customer service.

Stays competitive (and organized) with automated discounting.

DoodyCalls offers their customers a discounted rate when they pre-pay for services. But before using a QuickBooks-integrated CRM, the company struggled to keep on top of which customers had prepaid, what rates should be applied, and when customers were slated for service renewal.

“Before Method we would have to manually track how many services someone prepaid and would have to remember to call them to renew their prepayments. Sometimes we would forget to call and they would continue to get the prepaid discount.”

To stay competitive, Jacob needed an automated solution that allowed him to continue offering his customers a discount without losing out on revenue.

“We customized Method:CRM so that each time we complete a prepaid service the CRM counts the number of times the discount has been applied to the service. And then, when the customer runs out of prepaid services, the system puts them back on regular pricing.”

In addition to freeing up his team’s time from manually managing prepaid services, automation in Method:CRM prevents a hit to the company’s top line from over-discounting. The DoodyCalls franchise can now offer prepayment incentives while still receiving the maximum value for its services. And continuing to offer prepaid services allows Jacob to fund the growth of the DoodyCalls system with the increase in cash flow.

If you’re a small business franchise interested in learning more about multi-tenancy in Method:CRM, be sure to contact us or sign up for a free trial. A Customer Success Coach will be happy to walk you through a personalized demonstration of Method, answer all your questions, and show you how – like we did for DoodyCalls – we can help you clean up your workflow! (Sorry, I needed to squeeze in one more pun!)

About Method's Customization Services

For small businesses, off the shelf technology rarely, if ever, actually works off the shelf. That’s where Method’s Customization Services team stands apart. We’ll work closely with you to truly understand your business, and the barriers you’re facing, then develop a totally customized solution to solve your problems.

About DoodyCalls

Founded in 2000, DoodyCalls provides homeowners and their communities with year-round professional pet waste removal services. In 2004, DoodyCalls expanded and created the first national pet waste management franchise of its kind.

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